Seven volunteers from Great British PAC spent two hours clearing rubbish in Possilpark, Scotland on Saturday and filled 18 bags.
The Canal ward, which takes in Possilpark, Milton and Cowlairs, recorded 1,236 fly-tipping reports in 2025/26. In 2021/22 the figure was 738. That is a rise of around 67 per cent in four years.
The numbers were put to Glasgow City Council in June by Labour councillor Fiona Higgins, who asked how the authority reconciles its published response times with what residents actually see on their streets.
The SNP councillor responsible for neighbourhood services, Laura Doherty, replied that part of the increase reflected more people reporting incidents and more enforcement work.
The council's target for clearing fly-tipping is five days. The Canal ward has averaged about three, she said, which is within target, though she accepted the average "doesn't always match residents' experience particularly at repeat hotspot locations."
In 2022/23, the council allocated £1 million to each of Glasgow's wards through the Neighbourhood Infrastructure Improvement Fund.
Council papers show the Canal Area Partnership committed up to £200,000 of its share to mechanical street sweepers, and procurement of two machines began.
The purchase has still not gone through. The council says the process is ongoing and that it has loaned NG Homes one of its own sweepers in the meantime. The £200,000 will be drawn down from the fund once the machines are bought.
Brian Land, who chairs Possilpark Community Council, said in April that the temporary arrangement was "not good enough".
He told the Glasgow Times: "We pay council tax just like any other area, yet we are left with litter, dumping and neglect. Elected members and council officials should be ashamed of treating Possilpark like second-class citizens. It has to stop."
Possilpark grew around the Saracen Foundry, the ironworks Walter Macfarlane moved to the area from the Gallowgate. The works was taken over in 1965 and closed two years later. The site is now occupied by an industrial estate.
A street, a fire and a rumour
Stonyhurst Street, where Saturday's litter pick took place, has also been at the centre of a bitter local dispute this month.
Shortly before 5pm on Sunday 6 September, fire broke out on the fourth floor of a tenement block.
Six fire engines and specialist resources attended. Flames came through the roof, which was destroyed in the fire. Nobody was injured.
The block is one of three at 106, 110 and 116 Stonyhurst Street, all owned by the housing association NG Homes and all empty for more than 20 years.
Work was under way to bring 23 flats back into use as affordable homes, backed by council grant funding of up to £2.7 million.
Two protests had already been held outside the building, one in July and another in early August, after claims spread online that the refurbished flats would house asylum seekers or migrants.
NG Homes has said those claims are false and that the homes will be allocated to people on its housing list in accordance with its allocations policy and Scottish housing legislation.
Police Scotland is treating the fire as wilful.
On Monday 14 September, Graeme Moxey, 48, appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court charged with wilful fireraising. He made no plea and was remanded in custody. The investigation is continuing.
The First Minister, John Swinney, told parliament that those who set the fire, those who circulated information to incite it and those who celebrated it would all be pursued by Police Scotland.
Destroying homes that were being renovated, he said, was "an absolute disgrace".
At a council meeting on 10 September, deputy leader Ruairi Kelly said that being angry about unmet housing need does not make anyone a racist or a bigot, and that dismissing legitimate grievances as racism would only push people towards those who stoke hatred for their own gain.
He added: "However, setting fire to homes in your own community, which were going to be used to house your friends and neighbours, because you thought some black or brown people might move into them does make you all of those things."
He said 23 families in Possil now face a longer wait for a suitable home.
The woman at the centre of the row
Linda Dempster has run a tanning and beauty salon on Stonyhurst Street for 15 years.
She is known locally for turning it into a Santa's grotto each year for children in the area, and for paying for the gifts out of her own pocket.
She also repeated claims about the flats which NG Homes subsequently said were false.
She posted on a local Facebook page in early July saying the homes would go to single men who might have arrived in the UK illegally, and shared a post on 1 August saying the homes should go to people already on the waiting list.
On 3 August she organised a demonstration outside NG Homes' offices.
The Daily Record subsequently reported that Dempster had been central to spreading the claims.
She told the paper she had been asking questions on behalf of residents and never imagined anyone would burn the building down.
"We just wanted answers, but NG Homes wouldn't meet with anyone," she said. "None of this would have happened if NG Homes would have been more up front."
NG Homes says the claims about the intended occupants of the flats were false.
Nothing made public by Police Scotland has linked Dempster to the fire.
The Great British PAC team finished their litter pick on Saturday and took Dempster flowers.
What happens next
Claire Bullivant, CEO of Great British PAC, said:
"What struck our team in Possilpark was the contrast between ordinary people who simply want their neighbourhood looked after and a system that seems able to find endless money for bureaucracy while basic services are allowed to deteriorate.
"Residents pay their council tax and they are entitled to expect clean, safe streets and competent local government in return. Up to £200,000 was committed to mechanical street sweepers years ago, yet local people are still waiting for those machines, while seven of our volunteers managed to collect 18 bags of rubbish in just two hours.
"There are also clearly strong feelings in this community about housing and immigration. People must be free to ask difficult questions and challenge public bodies without being smeared or dismissed, but there can never be any justification for violence, intimidation or criminal damage.
"Great British PAC believes politics has to be about more than politicians issuing statements and arguing online. Sometimes you have to turn up, listen to people, roll up your sleeves and actually do something. That is exactly what our fantastic Scottish team did in Possilpark."
Eighteen bags in two hours will not solve Possilpark's problems.
Up to £200,000 was committed to mechanical street sweepers in 2022.
The machines still have not arrived.